1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed toward systems for activating games, and more particularly, to techniques for interfacing with a user's computing device to generate a device identifier used in determining whether to activate the game on the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, there exist numerous ways to activate computer/video games, such as, for example, via the Internet or a phone transaction. At the same time, game piracy and unauthorized activations continue to grow at an alarming rate, particularly in emerging economies. In response, game publishers and licensing authorities have focused on ways of making it more difficult for would-be pirates to install and activate a game illegally, such as by installing a single copy of the game on multiple machines. Still, software pirates have found ways to bypass such security measures and continue to activate unauthorized copies of games on multiple machines. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a technique for determining the devices on which a game has been activated or played, and for selectively activating the game on a particular computing device in accordance with the usage rights associated with the game.